SCEA Vice President Feels “Nobody Gains From Console Exclusivity”

SCEA’s Vice President of Publisher and developer Relations Adam Boyes in a keynote talk at IndieCade on Friday says that console exclusivity isn’t a benefit to anyone. He and Sony wants developers to be successful, even if that means going mutliplatform.

“Right now exclusives are just a way for [console markers] to brag louder. Nobody gains from exclusivity in perpetuity. Developers now have the option to deliver on a huge number of platforms. We want developers to be successful.”

Boyes does admit that exclusivity can help drive console sales, but that’s only in short term gains. And he doesn’t see long-term exclusivity as being productive to either console makers or developers. Given the audience most of his remarks are centered around indie games that Sony has been courting heavily. But it’s easy to see the same logic applied up the ladder at the AAA industry that needs all the sales it can get by being exposed to the widest possible audience with their enormous budgets.

We’re already seeing it with games now with the only games being exclusive are those made or paid for by the console manufacturers. In the end console exclusivity only serves to harm the customer by cutting them out from great games. Though Sony needs the good advertising of saying a game is exclusive the reality is that saying that helps in the short term means in the long term letting a game eventually go multiplatform is a good thing for everybody.